


Making Waves

by MarvelousMenagerie (HiddenOne)



Series: Teratober 2020 [1]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Bodyguard, Bodyguard Romance, M/M, Mermaid/Merboy AU, allusions to public sex, allusions to sex, mer tony, octo Bucky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:14:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26757841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiddenOne/pseuds/MarvelousMenagerie
Summary: Tony and Bucky come up with an unconventional plan to escape Tony's arranged marriage.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark
Series: Teratober 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949344
Comments: 7
Kudos: 201
Collections: Bucky Barnes Bingo 2020, StarkBucksBingo2020, The Monster Smash's Teratober 2020





	Making Waves

**Author's Note:**

> For Teratober2020 prompt Day 1 - Gills  
> Bucky Barnes Bingo K3 - Arranged Marriage  
> Starkbucks Bingo G5 - Asking for Trouble

Bucky jostled the rope of seashells that hung by the door frame, announcing his presence. There was no response, but he propelled himself into the room regardless.

He picked his path through, making sure his tentacles didn’t knock any of the project or pieces over.

“We’re waiting on you, Your Worshipfulness.” Bucky pitched his voice so it wouldn’t carry through the waves.

Tony didn’t care about decorum, but there were plenty who did. Enough of those who cared were jealous that it was scarred, octo-Bucky who had the esteemed position of guarding the noble heir and not a more respectable mer.

Steve had had to pull plenty of strings to get Bucky an interview, and it had taken Tony himself to throw enough weight to get Bucky hired.

But Bucky was good at his job. He could protect, and he would do anything to protect Tony. 

If only Bucky could find him.

Movement in the currents led Bucky to a back corner of the room and around a small outcropping of the rock wall.

Tony, hunched over, was frantically patting his neck as he stared in the mirror. His gaze met Bucky’s in the reflective surface.

Tony’s focused eased back into a grin, and his hands shifted to comb through his hair.

“Had to be sure I was perfect.” Tony winked, twisting around and using his bright blue tail to block Bucky’s view of the cup on the floor.

“You always are.” Bucky pressed close, closer than a guard needed.

But he and Tony were more than that - at least until dinner tonight.

He brushed away the paste that Tony had been trying to slather over his neck. “Starfish.”

“Don’t wreck my work,” Tony said, voice tight. He scooped up another handful of this mixture and slapped it over his gills. “I have a plan.”

“Grinding sand into your lungs isn’t a plan.”

A benefit of having so many limbs, Bucky wrapped tentacles around Tony’s hands and pulled them away. He used a few more to pull Tony close, hold him for what may be the last time, and still had his hands free to gently wipe away the paste.

Tony’s gills fluttered under his rising panic and Bucky’s ministrations. “I shelled out for the good stuff.”

Bucky grimaced, though it was true. This was finer than what he’d seen used, the shells that had gone into the mix ground down as fine as sand and a decent match for Tony’s coloring. But it would still end up scratching Tony’s delicate tissue and hurting him.

When the paste was gone, Tony’s gills splayed open with a deep, beckoning red color, edged in a bright blue that matched his scales. It was beautiful, eye-catching, and signaling Tony’s readiness to take a life-mate.

The sign that all the mers circling in the great hall were waiting for.

Bucky squeezed Tony tight, no longer wanting to rush Tony to his place in their midst. Tony could barely twitch, all wrapped up, but he relaxed into the hold that would panic other mers. His arms circled Bucky’s neck and squeezed back.

“You look amazing.” Bucky ran his lips over Tony’s fluttering gills. “You’ll be alright.”

Tony’s father Howard had been entertaining proposal offers for years, though full gill development rarely happened before the first quarter century. When Howard saw Tony, he might go ahead and arrange the marriage tonight.

“I want more than alright. I want _you_.”

“You’ll have me, no matter what.”

Bucky refused to give up his job at Tony’s side, even if that meant a front row ticket to watching Tony fall in love with someone else.

Or some mers weren’t picky about monogamy - though the chances were slim that those same mers wouldn’t mind an octo slipping into the relationship.

“Not even if I told you I packed a net?”

Bucky bit lip lip. This conversation was asking for trouble. Or - no. That first time he’d cast admiring eyes at Tony’s backside had been asking for trouble. Then when Tony had started casting teasing looks back over his shoulder, trouble had been knocking at the door.

Then Bucky had gone and invited trouble right in, and now _this_ was trouble nestling right into their seaweed bed and making itself at home.

“I can’t ask you to do that.” Bucky didn’t _want_ to ask Tony to do that. 

Tony would make a great head for the House of Stark. He’d do great things - for all mers, and especially octos. Bucky couldn’t take Tony away from that. Even if he did pack a few nets himself and have them stashed away. Just in case.

“I’m asking you.” Tony nipped at his collarbone.

All of Bucky’s hearts squeezed in pain. Be selfish and have Tony all to himself, or share Tony with the territory?

“Or…” Tony trailed off.

A red flush started to creep around Tony’s waistline, and Bucky eyed it, curious and hungry. He loved Tony’s bright blue scales, but he was addicted to turning them red. When Tony was twisted up and aching, begging but Bucky, his tail turned a deep maroon. When he came - gold speckles.

“What are you thinkin’ in that brain of yours?” Bucky rumbled, cupping Tony’s cheek.

“We go out there together and show them I’m yours.”

Bucky squeezed Tony tight, too tight, but Tony only sighed and flushed a deeper red.

“Little public display?”

“You know I like a show.” Tony grinned. “Might even shock dear old dad into a heart attack, what a bonus.”

“Starfish -”

“Come on,” Tony purred into Bucky’s ear. “Let everyone know who has my heart.”

“You have all of my hearts.”

Tony kissed him, deep and sure, until he caved to Tony’s mouth.

“We need someone to keep the hot-heads from spearing me through while I’m tangled up in you,” Bucky said. “If we had one more night -”

“Called the cavalry.” Tony beamed. “Rhodey said he’d pull a team together. We were going to need someone to cause a distraction if we swam away,” Tony defended with a shrug. “Now we’ll just be the distraction ourselves.”

“You have a plan for everything.” Bucky laughed, pressing his forehead against Tony’s. “Guess we won’t need any of our nets after all.”

“You packed some!” Tony accused, wiggling in Bucky’s grip.

“Said I couldn’t ask, didn’t say I wasn’t prepared. But I think this is the better plan.”

“Stay and fight,” Tony agreed. “Almost think you were taking a shell out of Steve’s stack.”

Bucky groaned.

Tony’s tail, a mix of bright happy blue and pinpricks of lusty red, thrashed in Bucky's tentacle hold.

“Come on. Let’s go make waves.”


End file.
